


First Meetings

by ivarara



Series: Maxis [25]
Category: Warframe
Genre: tin is so snarky and cocky i love her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:01:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22516675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivarara/pseuds/ivarara
Summary: Maxis meets an unfamiliar face for the first time. Little does she know, it won't be the last.
Series: Maxis [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1252910
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	First Meetings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chef_Rowl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chef_Rowl/gifts).



Maxis is still growing accustomed to her new life and its... adventures. Rewiring her brain to perceive former enemies that she’d shoot on sight as now allies she’d fight for was one of the trickier things. Between her and Hush, she still reflexively scoped in on any distant Grineer heads that meandered in front of her Argonak. But she never, ever pulled the trigger. Not anymore.

Rewiring her brain to perceive the Tenno as enemies, her former brothers and sisters under the Lotus, was harder. Formerly fighting alongside them and their Warframes, now targeting them in particular when on a mission. Hush, Trouvaille, and Maxis were the Hounds’ best bet against any interfering Tenno forces. 

Fortunately, so far that hasn’t been an issue. Corpus infiltrations were easy enough to do with Hush’s abilities, so even if a Tenno did show, they were usually finished with their task at hand before any others arrived.

“Maxis. Can you see the vault yet?” Her commander, Zus, grunted through her comm link.

“Not quite,” she whispers back from the spot they’d taken for now: under a set of stairs, squished behind crates and barrels of miscellaneous goods. “We need to proceed further down the hallway to the side, and it should be there.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” Former Tenno ways of running rampant into Corpus facilities and ships granted Max the knowledge of the basic layouts of the buildings. Corpus seemed to be rather unimaginative in their architecture, at least in these cases. The same patterns repeated over and over; the same room layouts recycled for efficiency and savings, probably.

“You’re lucky I’m lenient,” Zus mutters. “You’re rather informal with your speaking.”

Max flushes under the cover of her facemask, but her eyes go wide. “Sorry,” she stammers quietly. “Uh, sir.”

“Cut that out. Get what you’re doing done; we can focus on mannerisms some other time.” The link beeps as the line is cut.

Hush peers at Max, still fidgeting nervously after the communication from her commander. Trouvaille swirls an ear to face her, but stays focused on the doorway nearest to them.

“It’s...nothin’,” Max whispers, brushing off Hush’s concern.

Hush doesn’t seem to believe her, but does look away.

_Oh, great. This is, what, my third mission? And I’m already pissing the commander off._

She shakes her head to rattle the thoughts out. “Hush, you know the plan?” Her Ivara Warframe nods, rifling through her quiver for the correct arrows.

“Trouvaille.” The kubrow, snaps to attention, going stock-still. “Heel.” He slinks over to Max’s feet, and lies in wait. 

Hush cloaks herself in Prowl silently, then quickly tags an arrow onto Maxis and Trouvaille to render them unseen for a short period.

“Okay. Keep them distracted, yeah?” A nod from Hush. “Let’s roll.”

Max prides herself on how silently she could move when she wants to. It’s part of what convinced the Hounds to take her little trio in, under the guise of working for intelligence infiltrations. Hush is always silent, no matter what she did. Hush could fire off a deafening shotgun and enemies would still be left trying to figure out where the noise had come from. Trouvaille was surprisingly quiet as well, figuring out how to walk on the pads of his paws to stay silent. He also worked up a near-imperceptible series of noises to signal Maxis and Hush: a low growl, a quick huff, a muted grunt, a quiet _whuff._

Crewmen mill around in the hallway they slither through, oblivious that they’d been infiltrated in the first place. Still, Hush kept a noise arrow ready for use.

“There’s the vault,” Max whispers mostly to herself. Hush knew the fact. Trouvaille... doesn't care. Trouvaille just wants Max safe.

They sidle into the entrance to the vault, the outer door swishing shut behind them as the cloak arrows wear off and Hush comes out of Prowl.

“Uh…” Max stares at the console.

The screen is green.

The vault is unlocked. Why is it unlocked? Who’s in there?

Trouvaille’s fur bristles as he gives a warning snarl. Hush is on alert as well, Artemis Bow ready to harm rather than disguise.

“We don’t know who it is yet,” Max worries. “Just...keep your trigger-finger off the trigger for now.”

Hush nods warily, but cloaks her Operator and kubrow again.

“You keep an eye out for company. Trouvaille and I will go to the target console.”

Hush slips into the vault and goes one way, while Max and Trouvaille go the other. The vault is eerily silent and dormant. No guards wandered their patrol routes. No security cameras hummed as they scan the area. Even the laser grids seem to have been disabled.

Max is naive, but certainly not dumb.

A shape moves inside the tiny walled-off area the console is hidden in. Ah. There’s our company.

“Hush, they’re at the console. Distract them.”

Hush breaks open a vent grate, using the clattering of metal bars to jump in the vent unnoticed. The shape by the console freezes.

Still cloaked, Max and Trouvaille round a corner and enter the tiny room. The tension is damn near palpable with how close they all are. Hush purposefully rustles in the vents above them, the stranger--a Warframe? A Saryn Prime, by the looks of it--looking up to follow the noise.

_Oh, no_. Max’s stomach sinks and her heart chills. _Please, no. Not now._

The Saryn Prime draws a Tiberon Prime, slowly raising it to aim at the grates above them with a few steps to the side.

_Get in there._ Max slinks up to the console, nimble fingers working quickly over the screen to unlock the data within. 

She’s just finishing up the hack when Trouvaille snarls, deep and guttural and threatening.

And then the Prime bodily runs in to the cloaked Operator.

“What the--?” A surprised female voice emanates from the Warframe as it swings its rifle in Max’s general direction. “Who’s there? Show yourself, now. We know you’re here.”

_For crying out loud, this is just my luck,_ Max laments to herself. Of course it’s another Warframe, one that can melt their armor off in seconds. Of course it’s another Operator that’s mastered actual Transference, making the link between Warframe and Operator stronger and more flexible. 

Trouvaille is still bristling and growling as the cloak arrows wear off at the contact.

Max gawks at the Saryn Prime, finger on the trigger of her Argonak to at least provide cover if needed.

“You’re... what, a competitor?” The Saryn’s voice sounds like how a smirk looks.

Maxis says nothing, eyes narrowing suspiciously, finger still on the trigger.

“You are a Tenno, right?” 

Max doesn’t respond. 

“Where’s your Warframe, then?”

Max stays silent, glaring.

“You’re not very friendly, you know.” The Saryn declares as she holsters the Tiberon.

Max falters, eyebrows raising for a split second.

“Oh, _that_ got you? Hurt your feelings?”

The Saryn Prime stands still, arms at her side, for a moment. Her Operator swiftly Transfers out of the Warframe, and stands proudly, arrogantly before the intruders, a full seven inches taller than Maxis. The Saryn crosses her arms as she stands behind the other Tenno, reinforcing the intimidating image.

“You gonna hand that data over?” She asks cockily.

Max glares again as Trouville growls.

“A little kubrow to watch your back instead of a Warframe, then?” The other Operator peers closer at the canine. “A Grineer patch…? You’re allied with the _Grineer_?” She asks incredulously. 

Max anxiously shifts her weight on her feet.

“You’ve got the patch too. You’re _allied_ with them?”

Silence.

“Interesting... How about we strike a deal.” She says with faux-earnesty. “Give me that data from the console, and I’ll let you scamper back to your pack of dogs you’ve somehow managed to worm into.”

Maxis’ hand tightens around the small datamass with all the information on it. 

“I’ll admit, I admire your gall.” She steps closer, Trouvaille’s growl growing in volume. “Give it over. I’m trying to help you out, here. A scathing scolding from your superior would be preferable to death, no?”

Hush snaps out of the vent above them, slamming into the ground between the two Tenno. The Saryn Prime flinches, but readies herself, pulling her Operator back towards her to safety. Hush mimics the motion.

“An Ivara for a spy mission? Cliche, but smart, I suppose.”

A commotion raises from outside the vault. Voices and footsteps nearing quickly.

“Last chance, sweetheart. Hand it over.”

Hush seems damn near about to burst into flame at the anger radiating off of her form. Before she can act, the entrance door to the vault whooshes open, an unruly herd of Crewmen barging in and shouting.

“Lovely,” the Operator mutters as she Transfers back into her Saryn Prime. She looks curiously at Maxis when she doesn’t do the same with Hush. “You go on your own? That’s courageous, I’ll admit.”

Max ignores what the non-sensible part of her mind is spewing. _Her looks. Say she looks nice. Ask if she wants to meet up in a different environment. Be her friend. Make a friend. Be nice. Just--_

A firm huff of air clears her head. “Hush, get back to the vents and sleep arrow some of those Crewmen.” Hush obeys immediately, leaping back up to the displaced grate to round the vents and throw out a sleep arrow. The arrow hits the ground with a tunk, and the Crewmen in the immediate area slump over.

Involuntarily, Max throws a hand over her shoulder, ushering the Saryn Prime out.

“No need to tell me what to do,” the Operator’s voice rings out of the Warframe. “I can handle myself just fine.” She charges out of the vault, swinging a strange sword in strong backhanded strikes. The Warframe quickly infects a few unfortunate targets with spores that rapidly festered and strengthened as they spread.

But they did not affect Max, or Hush, or Trouvaille.

_Be touched about the act of kindness later._

Hush flies down from the vent, clearing a path for the other spies to scamper through. 

To her surprise, the other Warframe and Operator didn’t simply blast ahead of them, knock over soldiers as they make their escape. Of course not; she still wants that data. 

“You guys coming or what?”

Hush grabs Max by the arm and drags her forward, Trouvaille scurrying along beside them. As they ran, more spores were spread, more Crewmen literally corroded away before Max’s eyes.

She shudders to herself. She was used to seeing and causing death, but it didn’t mean she was okay with it. And certainly not when it was this... gruesome.

“So, now that we’re here,” the Saryn Prime skids to a stop in an open room where Crewmen haven’t gathered yet. “Data? Now? Please? Pretty please?”

“Uh--” Maxis answers for the first time, before Hush picks her up bodily and runs.

“No worries, cutie, I’m sure we’ll meet again! You better hope I’m still in a good mood when we do!”

_Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about how she called you ‘cutie’ and ‘sweetheart’ and complimented you on being ‘courageous’._

“I see it’s gone loud in there.” Zus unamused voice remarks over the comm link. “Did it not go so well?”

“There, ah, there was,” Max stutters out as she’s jostled, “there was another Tenno in there. In the vault.”

“Did you get the data?”

“Yeah, that’s intact.”

“Perfect. Get back out here and we’ll pick you all up and head back.”

_Oh, you’re in for it, one way or another, Maxis_.


End file.
